I've been using an OCZ Vertex 2 SSD as my desktop's system drive for over a year and it's increased the performance of my system tremendously. The specs of the Vertex 3 indicate it's twice as fast as the Vertex 2.

I'm thinking of picking one up I just bought one to use as the system drive for my HTPC build. Using an SSD as the root partition on Mythbuntu will make the boot much faster and having root and the media partitions on separate disks will also improve the performance of the media drive.

HTPC DIY Rating

4.3 out of 5

Noise:

4.5/5

Quality:

4.5/5

Value:

4/5

For my MythTV Frontend/Backend HTPC I chose the Antec EarthWatts EA-380D PSU to power my system. The EA-380D is an ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V compatible power supply which delivers up to 380 Watts of continuous power. The 80+ Bronze Certification means it has been tested to be at least 82% efficient.

The Antec EA-380D feels like a solid power supply. I haven't had any issues with it since I built my HTPC. The exhaust fan for the power supply is near silent which is a great bonus for a media pc.

Note: Antec decided to not include a power cord for environmental reasons.

HTPC DIY Rating

3.8 out of 5

Appearance:

3.5/5

Quality:

3.5/5

Value:

4/5

For my MythTV Frontend/Backend HTPC I chose the nMedia PC 6000B chassis. The 6000B is about the size of a mid tower case but is styled to look more like A/V equipment than a standard PC case. The design is simple and elegant looking

Build quality is what you would expect for a lower priced PC case but the 6000B feels sturdy enough and I didn't find any sharp edges while working inside the chassis. The case holds up to 6 internal hard drives, 1 optical drive and comes with 3 very quiet fans.

Now that I've decided on an HD DVR system it is time to select the computer components that would make up my HTPC.

I am planning on using the free, open source MythTV software to act as my media center and I plan on running it on Ubuntu using the MythBuntu distribution so my hardware selections factored in compatibility with Linux. The hardware below should also perform well if you plan on using Windows Media Center.

In future posts I'll go into more detail about the hardware and how to put everything together but bellow is my HTPC hardware requirements and the hardware I chose to meet those requirements.